Fatal Courage: Shadow Force International, Book 3 (Shadow Force International Romantic Suspense Series)

by Misty Evans

  There were advantages to being a beautiful woman with the smarts to analyze and manipulate. Several reports in McKellen’s file mentioned she had used her feminine attributes to get intel. Harmless flirting from the sounds of it, but McKellen often used her attributes as a means of distraction while her partner accessed whatever—or whoever—the two of them were after. “Is it possible Hayden let McKellen do the messy stuff in order to keep his own nose clean?”

  “Possible, yes. Probable is more like it.”

  There was more, but he wasn’t saying it. She peeked at him under her eyelashes, saw the consternation lining his face. “Something’s bothering you.”

  His steely blue eyes met hers. “You’re bothering me. Now, close your eyes.”

  A heavy sigh left her mouth. Her body was relaxing, even if her mind continued its spin class. She shut her eyes, trying to soak in the acupressure. “Most operatives work alone. Hayden and McKellen’s teamwork has been outstanding, so the Agency kept them together. They posed as husband and wife on multiple occasions.”

  It was all stuff he already knew from their files, but she wanted to get him back to thinking about the case and not about her. Being the center of attention made her uncomfortable.

  “Hayden’s not much of a partner if he made her take all the risks,” Trace said.

  “Maybe he didn’t. That’s why his file is scrubbed.”

  Trace moved to her other side, so quiet, so fast, she didn’t even realize it until he lifted her left hand and began applying pressure. As the only soldier to survive Project 24, his superhuman skills were a thing to behold.

  “Or he screwed up royally,” he said, “but they didn’t want to break up a good thing. They erased it from his files and kept both of them in the field doing their Mr. and Mrs. Smith routine.”

  She’d seen the movie he referred to. It was decent entertainment, but any operative worth her salt would have taken out her partner in his sleep, not called attention to herself or ruining a lovely house in an effort to gun the man down. “Or Hayden’s been doing off-the-books work that his partner may or may not have known about.”

  “Like what?”

  Her garden visualization was turning stormy. “When I worked for NSA, we were often given a legitimate assignment with a second, secret assignment layered under it.”

  “Had a few of those myself.” He released her hand, laying it next to her. “So Hayden gets double duty, but McKellen is left in the dark about it.”

  “Help me up,” she said, popping her eyes open. “I need to call Zeb.”

  “You have ten more minutes of relaxation.”

  Trying to roll to her side, she sent a mental apology to the baby. “If Hayden was working subsequent secret operations, he may be a severe liability to the Agency. You know what they do to liabilities.”

  Trace sat back on his heels, but put a hand on her shoulder, keeping her down. “You think they hired us to go after Hayden because they want him dead?”

  “They hired Jax, specifically. The man who reported Hayden to the Justice Department, who ended up putting him in prison for crimes against the nation. A black mark on the CIA’s already shaky blotter.”

  “They know Hayden has information that could get them in trouble with Congress, and he’s not about to go down peacefully when Jax finds him.”

  “Exactly.”

  Trace shook his head. “Fuckers. They’ve put Jax in a no-win situation so he takes out their man and they keep their hands clean.”

  “Which is why I need to call Zeb first, then Jaxon.”

  She tried to shrug off his hand, but he was stronger. “You stay put. I’ll handle this.”

  He stood and stepped around her, heading for her desk. “What’s Zeb’s number?” he asked, snatching up the handset.

  “He’s on speed dial. Number 3.”

  Trace nodded and punched the button.

  A REPORTER RUSHED them as soon as she recognized their faces.

  Jax saw the blond bombshell heading their direction before Ruby did. “Incoming, six o’clock.”

  Ruby checked for the danger over her shoulder, then jammed her finger onto the car door’s lock. “Get in.”

  Lucky for them, Emit, Rory, and Colton were idling behind the car. Jax hand-signaled Emit; he nodded, and the next thing they all knew, the reporter found a big, black barricade in the form of a Cadillac Escalade between her and her quarry.

  Ruby gave Emit a thumbs-up before she slid into the driver’s seat. Jax did the same, tucking himself into a tight ball to fit into the passenger seat. “Could you have rented a smaller car?”

  The engine revved and Ruby made a smooth squeeze between Emit’s Caddy and the car in front of them. “Hey, not all of us are ex-linebackers.”

  He shot her a look. “You ran a background check on me?”

  “Please. It was a lucky guess.”

  Lucky guess, his ass.

  Still…she’d looked into his background. She’d wanted to know more about him. He grinned. “State champs my senior year.”

  She merged into traffic, heading for her apartment. “And you were scouted by several major universities, yada, yada, yada.”

  Jax checked the sideview, saw Emit trailing them. “You did do a background check.”

  “Nothing that in-depth. Maybe a Google search. You accused my partner of treason after all.”

  “Speaking of… Who was that on the video from the station?”

  Her fingers clenched slightly on the wheel. Because of the traffic or because he’d hit the nail on the head?

  She checked her side mirror, changed lanes. “I told you and Emit, I’ve never heard of Agent Brown.”

  Lying, but not lying. “But you know who the man is posing as Agent Brown, don’t you?”

  “What? No.”

  God, he hated it when she lied to him. “Ruby.”

  She glanced over at him, gave him a WTF smile. “Jax, I’m just as invested in this as you are.”

  “Yet, you continue to keep intel from me. I get it, Elliot is in some deep shit. Deeper than I realized. Maybe the guy isn’t guilty, he’s simply trapped in a game he can’t win.”

  She nearly rear-ended a camper in front of them. As she stomped the brakes, the front of the car nose-dived, then snapped back up. “Did you just say what I think you said?”

  He huffed, not appreciating her incredulous tone. “There are a lot of things that don’t add up, and if I screwed up, and Elliot is innocent of killing Al-Safari, or there’s more to the story than he admitted because he’s in a goatfuck with the CIA, or Homeland, or whoever, then I want to make it right.”

  She focused on her driving again, a frown creasing her forehead. “That’s mighty noble of you.”

  “I’m a noble guy.”

  She snorted. “No, you’re not.”

  Silence fell like a blanket between them, Ruby seeming lost in thought. Or maybe she was simply concentrating on the horrible traffic.

  One thing for certain, she was right. He wasn’t a noble guy.

  Fifteen minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot behind her apartment building. That guy he’d seen yesterday with the dog was sitting outside, a cigarette dangling from his skinny fingers and his eyes hidden behind tiny John Lennon sunglasses.

  Emit and the others parked beside them and Emit got out. Jax rolled down the window. Humid air engulfed the car.

  “We’ll canvas the place first, make sure it’s clear,” Emit said, handing him an earbud.

  Jax popped it in and tapped the button to turn on the comm. “Roger that, boss.”

  Emit and Colton headed for the apartment.

  “Wait,” Ruby called out. “Don’t you want the key?”

  She held it up, the metal key flashing in the sun. Colton turned, grinned as he walked back to her. “Aw, what fun is that? We’d rather use our awesome skills to break in.”

  “You need to get out more if breaking and entering is your idea of fun,” Ruby said, dropping it into his han
d.

  Colton lowered his head to flash his grin at Jax. “I like her.” He switched his gaze to Ruby. “Any time you want to take me out for some fun, I’ll clear my calendar.”

  Jax rolled his eyes and flipped Colt off behind Ruby’s back.

  Ruby tapped the steering wheel as Emit and Colton made their way inside. “This really isn’t necessary,” she said.

  Jax tapped his comm to turn off the mic and touched the bracelet on her wrist. “You’re a card-carrying Rock Star client, Ruby. Your safety is our highest priority.”

  “Your boss wants to bug my place in case Elliot shows up.”

  “Yeah, about that…” Jax glanced over at John Lennon Junior and debated whether telling her the truth was a good idea, but what the hell? He needed her to trust him and the best way to gain that trust was to be honest.

  She glanced at him, eyes narrowed. “You already did, didn’t you?”

  JL Junior watched him and Ruby. In his ear, Jax heard Rory, still in the Escalade, humming a Beatles song.

  “I was sent here to hunt down Hayden, and I knew he would come to you. You were uncooperative, so…” He shrugged, letting her fill in the rest.

  She opened a compartment under the armrest between them and pointed down. What Jax saw inside made him shake his head.

  All three of the bugs he’d placed inside her apartment were nestled inside with some change and a hair clip. He’d never had a chance to turn on his phone’s app to listen in last night and Ruby had found every one them.

  All three were flattened, tangled messes. “You stepped on them?”

  She was smiling. “I imagined your pretty-boy, linebacker face as I ground my heel into each one.”

  Liar.

  She loved that he’d bugged her place. He could see it in the way her eyes danced. She loved that she’d found them and ruined his plans, because like every spook he’d ever worked with, Ruby loved the game.

  The strategy, the bluffing, the deceit. The one-upping everyone else. It made her blood pump faster, her senses heighten, her brain work out multiple scenarios like a chess game.

  In essence, she was a con man, addicted to the adrenaline rush.

  He knew the feeling. The first time he took a football in for a touchdown, he was only ten years old. Ever since, he’d been chasing that elusive feeling. All through high school, into college, hitting the gridiron harder than anyone on his team, making the hail Mary plays time and time again.

  Not to win the game. Not because he counted on the football scholarships to get him through his first four years of college.

  He did it because it felt good.

  Better than good.

  Eventually, he couldn’t meet the demands of school and football. The call to be a doctor had been strong, but he missed the rush of playing sports. Leaving med school and joining the Navy had met his next quest for that high.

  He’d found it, ending up a SEAL for four years. Four glorious years of pushing his body and his mind to the limit.

  Until Marrakech. Until Ruby.

  One night with her and nothing felt the same. The rush, the high that came from being with her, turned his addiction into something completely different. One he still didn’t understand.

  The need thrummed just under his skin with every sway of her hair, every smile, every look she gave him.

  Colt’s voice came over the comm, jerking Jax out of his mind travel. “We’re in.”

  Jax relayed the info to Ruby as he scanned the area. He wanted to talk about Elliot again, but bringing that up seemed like a good way to ruin their current truce. Over at the picnic table, JL Junior was finishing his smoke. “Your neighbor sure is nosy.”

  Ruby glanced over the guy. “Dan’s just lonely. Woodstock is all he has.”

  “Woodstock?”

  “The dog. That’s her name.”

  “How original. A hippy with a dog named Woodstock.”

  “You’re so cynical.”

  She said it with humor, but she was right. He was cynical. Angry. Hurt.

  Addicted to a drug sitting right next to him, close enough to touch but still completely out of reach.

  He wanted her back in his life. Not just for another one-night stand. He wanted to date her, think about something long-term.

  Spies didn’t do long-term.

  Ruby was talking again. “…and he’s not a hippy. Dan’s a geologist. Works with rocks and stuff for one of the universities.”

  “No wonder he doesn’t have friends.”

  “Jaxon.” A reprimand.

  He turned to her, as best as his big body could do in the compact car. Truce time was up. “Ruby, who was that on the video?”

  She opened her mouth to answer, then shut it with a shake of her head. “If I tell you what I’m thinking, you have to swear not to go off half-cocked or tell anyone else until I confirm it.”

  Shit. That could only mean…

  Emit’s voice interrupted him. “Place is clear, but someone left Ruby a message. You better get up here.”

  Jax clenched his teeth, trying to hold in the expletives on his tongue. He tapped his comm to open his end. “Roger that,” he growled.

  Rory was already out of the SUV, fighting with his crutches.

  “It appears Agent Brown is two steps ahead of us,” Jax said to Ruby. “He left you a message upstairs.”

  Before he could open his door, Ruby was out and running for her apartment.

  Chapter Eight

  _____________________

  ______________________________________________________

  RUBY’S BREATH CAUGHT in her throat the moment she swept through the door.

  The place was destroyed.

  The couch had been upended, the cushions slashed. Her few personal items—books and papers—lay torn and trampled on the floor. The flat screen TV had been ripped from the wall, a crater in the center where someone had stomped on the screen. Her laptop was missing from the desk; the drawers had been yanked out and dumped.

  Emit emerged from the kitchen, a bug scanner in hand. “The place is a wreck, but there are no listening devices or hidden cameras. Any idea what they were after?”

  Me.

  It was a total gut reaction—she had no real basis for thinking someone was after her, but since the near miss at the club and now this…

  “The laptop, maybe.” Her voice sounded strained, giving away that she didn’t believe it. “It was on the desk.”

  He walked to the desk, stepping over the scattered drawers. “What was on it? Anything top secret?”

  “Of course not.”

  Jax came up behind her and whistled under his breath as he pulled up short. “Fucking A. What the hell?”

  Ruby steadied her shaky legs and moved farther into the living room, avoiding the broken glass from a mirror that had been jerked from the wall. “There was nothing classified on my laptop,” she said to Emit.

  “You’ll need to do an inventory,” he said, snapping a picture with his phone of the destruction. “Jewelry, cash, weapons. See if anything else is missing.

  Shinedown appeared in the doorway from the bedroom, holding up a pair of sneakers. “Better put these on.”

  Ruby accepted the shoes and slipped her feet into them. She bent down to collect the papers, mostly to give herself something to do. Her fingers felt stiff, her mind cataloging what was mostly bills. Water, electric, Internet.

  “Hey,” Jax said softly as he bent down to help. He reached out and took the pile of papers from her hands. “Why don’t you grab a shower and a change of clothes? I’ve got this.”

  “This wasn’t Elliot. He wouldn’t do this.”

  “Is it possible he was looking for something?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like something on that laptop?” Emit supplied.

  “There was nothing important on there, and why would he trash the place if all he wanted was the laptop?”

  The logic made sense; she could see it in Jax’s face. If it
was a simple grab-and-go, there was no reason to vandalize the apartment. It didn’t make sense.

  Unless someone was trying to throw them off track.

  Or scare her.

  Jax apparently followed her train of thought. “They might have taken the laptop to make it look like a robbery. Or trashed the place to make it look like a random B&E when they were after the laptop.”

  “But why? I didn’t have anything of value intel-wise. To Elliot or anyone else.”

  Shinedown scooted the flat screen over to the side. “Maybe they think you do.”

  “Or maybe you do,” Emit added, his sharp eyes sizing her up, “but you don’t realize it.”

  Her brain hurt. Literally hurt as blood pounded against her temples. “Whoever did this was looking for Elliot. I’d bet my last paycheck on it, which may be coming sooner than I’d hoped if I don’t get my ass to Director Timm’s office.”

  She kicked a torn cushion out of the way, made eye contact with Jax, and cocked her head toward the bedroom.

  He followed her through the debris, then stood with her as they surveyed the damage done to her bedroom. The pillows had been split open, the mattress as well. The lamp from the nightstand had been tossed to the floor, breaking the bulb and damaging the shade. Her sparse collection of clothes and shoes lay scattered across the floor.

  “This looks personal to me.” Jax eyed the deep gashes in the mattress. “Whoever did this is sending you a strong message, but you’re right. This wasn’t Elliot. This was someone who’s after him.”

  Someone who meant business. If she’d been here, no telling what they might have done to her.

  But who were “they?”

  It was time to stop pulling her punches. She needed help, and like it or not, help was standing next to her. “I need to show you something.”

  She went for her cell phone, saw Jax’s eyes tracking her leg again as she hoisted her hemline and pulled the phone from its case on her thigh. Let him stare. She liked the fact that he couldn’t take his eyes off her body when she showed it to him.

  Sick, but whatever. He made her feel good about herself, even if he did gawk. He wasn’t like the men who only cared about her sexiness. He treated her with respect, even when he was mad at her. And she’d hurt him, she knew that. Regretted that.